Student Paper Award
2012 Student Paper Award
RAS (Railway Applications Section), a subdivision of INFORMS (Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences), is sponsoring a student research paper contest on analytics and fact-based decision making in railway applications with a total cash award of US$1,750: (click here for flier)
Cash Awards: $1,000 First Place, $500 Second Place, $250 third prize.
The First Place paper will be considered for publication in Networks. The paper still needs to go through the journal’s normal refereeing procedure; however, the paper will receive an expedited refereeing and publication process. More details about this journal can be found here.
An author of any paper receiving an award must be available to present at the INFORMS Annual Meeting on Sunday, October 14, 2012 in Phoenix, AZ.
Overview
Operations Research (OR) and the Management Sciences (MS) are professional disciplines that deal with the application of information technology for informed decision making. OR/MS professionals aim to provide rational bases for decision making by seeking to understand and structure complex situations and to use this understanding to predict system behavior and improve system performance. Much of this work is done using analytical and numerical techniques to develop and manipulate mathematical and computer models of organizational systems composed of people, machines, and procedures. RAS provides a forum for bringing together practitioners, consultants, and academics interested in applying OR/MS techniques to the railroad industry. RAS activities include roundtables, paper sessions at INFORMS national meetings, workshops, and focus groups. Roundtables provide attendees with a unique opportunity to explore, in-depth, topics ranging from eBusiness to simulation to network modeling together with a panel of experts. Paper sessions feature the latest in OR/MS research pertaining to the rail industry.
Rules
- The paper must be written by a student or students enrolled in an academic institution during the 2011-2012 academic year.
- One or more advisors may appear as co-authors of a paper, but the student(s) must be the "primary author".
- The paper must advance the application or theory of OR/MS for improvement of freight or passenger railway transportation.
- An extended abstract not exceeding 5 pages (normal margins, double spacing, font size of 10) must be included as part of the submission. Extended abstracts WILL BE PUBLISHED on the RAS website (http://www.informs.org/Community/RAS) for ANY paper receiving an award. The author(s) retains all copyrights and can still submit the paper to a journal for publication.
- The paper must represent original research (not literature reviews) and not have been published elsewhere by the time it is submitted.
How to enter
Submit an abstract of your proposed paper by June 3, 2012.
The completed paper, including extended abstract, should be submitted by July 29, 2012.
Paper Format: The paper must use double spacing, 11 pt (or larger) font, and 1 inch (or larger) margins (left, right, top, and bottom). The entire paper (including bibliography, appendices, figures, etc.) must not exceed 25 pages and, except for those containing references, each page should contain no more than 26 lines of text.
Cover page must include the paper title, and a single-spaced 75 word summary/abstract. It should also include author’s information, clearly specifying the primary author’s name, phone & e-mail address, and the name of the institution where the student(s) is enrolled.
Students submitting papers with their advisor(s) included as authors must accompany their submission with a letter from the advisor(s) specifying (i) the contribution of the student defining the problem that resulted in the paper, (ii) conducting the research itself, and (iii) in writing the paper.
Electronic submissions are required. Submit abstracts and paper (no *.zip files) to:
Dr. Juan C. Morales, BNSF Railway - email: Juan.Morales@BNSF.com - All submissions will get a response email to acknowledge receipt.
RAS reserves the right to suspend the contest if no suitable papers are received.
Sponsors
Thanks to our sponsors for support (In alphabetical order):
Recent Winners
| 2012 | First Place | Xiaoyan SI, from University of Texas for the paper "Real-time Crew Assignment in Double-ended Districts with Primary-Secondary Queues" |
| Second Place | Lucas P. Veelenturf, from Erasmus University Rotterdam for the paper "A recoverable robust solution approach for real-time railway crew rescheduling " | |
| Third Place | Sifeng Lin, from University of Texas for the paper "Optimization-based Decision Support System for Train Dispatching" | |
| 2011 | First Place | Yazhe Feng, from Virginia Tech for the paper "Time and Capacity Constrained Routing Problem in Railroad Planning" |
| Second Place | Conrado Borraz-Sánchez, from Northwestern University for the paper "Strategic Gang Scheduling for Railroad Maintenance" | |
| Third Place | Fan Peng, from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for the paper "Periodical Rail Inspection Scheduling in Railroad Networks" | |
| Honorable Mention | Mor Kaspi,from Tel Aviv University, Israel for the paper "Service Oriented Line Planning and Timetabling for Passenger Trains" | |
| 2010 | First Place | Twan Dollevoet, from Erasmus University, Rotterdam, Netherlands for the paper "Delay Management with Re-Routing of Passengers" |
| Second Place | Lingyun Meng, from Beijing Jiaotong University for the paper "Robust Train Dispatching Model Under a Dynamic and Stochastic Environment: A Scenario-based Rolling Horizon Solution Approach" | |
| 2009 | First Place | Endong Zhu, from University of Montreal, Canada, for the paper, " Network Design for Freight Rail Transportation." |
| Award Photos | ||
| Second Place | Ashish Kumar Nemani, Suat Bog, from University of Florida, USA, for the paper, "Exact and Heuristic Algorithms for the Curfew Planning Problem." | |
| Honorable Mention | Rodrigo Acuna-Agost, from University of Avignon, France, for the paper, "SAPI: Statistical Analysis of Propagation of Incidents. A New Approach for Rescheduling." | |
| 2008 | First Place | Lars Kjær Nielsen, from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands, for the paper, " A Decision Support Framework for Rolling Stock Rescheduling." |
| Award Photos | ||
| Second Place | Daniel Potthoff, from Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands, for the paper, "An Algorithm for Railway Crew Rescheduling." | |
| Honorable Mention | Muhammad Babar Khan, from Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, P.R. China, for the paper "Slack Time Allocation in Robust Double-Track Train Timetabling Applications." | |
| 2007 | First Place | Andrea D’Ariano, from Delft University of Technology, Stevinweg Delft, The Netherlands, for the paper, "A Tabu Search Algorithm for Rerouting Trains During Rail Operations." |
| Award Photos | ||
| Second Place | Ashish Kumar Nemani, from University of Florida, for the paper, "Load Planning Problem at an Intermodal Railroad Terminal." | |
| 2006 | First Place | Gang Li , University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, for the paper, "Spatial Scheduling and Resource Selection Problem: Modeling, Algorithm, and Application in the Production Gang Scheduling for Railway Maintenance Operations." |
| Award Photos | ||
| Second Place | Andrea D'Ariano, from Delft University of Technology, Stevinweg Delft, The Netherlands, for the paper, "Modeling Reordering and Local Rerouting Strategies to Solve Train Conflicts during Rail Operations." | |
| Honorable Mention | Balachandran Vaidyanathan, from University of Florida, for the paper, "Developing Fueling and Servicing Friendly Locomotive Plans" | |
| 2005 | First Place | Pieter Vansteenwegen, from Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, for the paper, "Decreasing the Passenger Waiting times for IC Networks of belgian Railways" |
| Second Place | Johanna Tornquist, from Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden, for the paper, "N-Tracked Ralway Traffic Rescheduling during Disturbances" | |
| Honorable Mention | Soheil Sidbari, from University of Mass., Dartmouth, for the paper, "Revenue Management of Auto train at Amtrack" | |
| 2004 | First Place | Michiel J. Vromans, from the Rotterdam School of Management, for the paper, "Heterogeneity and Reliability of Railway Services" |
| Second Place | Guvenc Sahin, from University of Florida, for the paper, "New Approaches for Train Dispatching Problem" | |
| Honorable Mention | Amar Kumar Narisetty, from Purdue University, for the paper, "An Optimization Model for Assignment of Empty Cars in Railroad Networks" | |
| Balachandran Vaidyanathan, for the paper, "A Network Flow Approach for Railroad Crew Scheduling" | ||
| 2003 | First Place | Krishna C. Jha, from University of Florida, for the paper, "New Approaches for Solving the Block-to-Train Assignment Problem" |
| Second Place | Xuesong Zhou and Ming Zhong, from University of Maryland, for the paper, "Bicriteria train scheduling for intercity passenger railroad planning applications" | |
| Honorable Mention | Jian Liu, from University of Florida, for the paper, "Solving Real-Life Railroad Blocking Problems" | |
| Steven Harrod, from University of Cincinnati, for the paper, "Timetable Buffer Magnitude and Allocation: An Analysis Using Simulation" | ||
| 2002 | First Place | Jian Liu, from University of Florida, for the paper, "Solving Real-Life Locomotive Scheduling Problems" |
| Ramon M. Lentink, from Erasmus University and Dennis Huisman, from Erasmus University, for the paper, "Shunting Passenger Train Units in a Railway Station" | ||
| Second Place | Jodelson Sabino, from Federal University of Espirito Santo, for the paper, "Ant Colony Systems Applied to Switch Engine Assignment and Routing in a Railroad Yard" | |
